Thailand Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin. - The Nation Thailand/ANN
BANGKOK: Thailand will increase its minimum wage in January, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said on Tuesday confirming a previous deal, while the government plans to further raise it in March.
A wage committee, comprised of government, employers and employee representatives, had previously agreed to increase the daily minimum wage by 2.37%, effective in January, but Srettha deemed the hike too low.
Srettha's ruling Pheu Thai party campaigned on populist platform with a key plank of raising the daily minimum wage to 400 baht, despite concerns over competitiveness.
"Another investigation covering local wage rates and professional groups will conclude in March ... (to determine) areas and groups that can increase wages," Labour Minister Phipat Ratchakitprakarn told reporters.
The current minimum wage is 328-354 baht ($9.49 - $10.24) varying between different parts of the country with the committee agreeing to raise the pay threshold range to 330 baht to 370 baht.
Companies have warned that increasing wages at a time when borrowing costs were increasing and Southeast Asia's second-largest economy was lagging behind its regional peers could make industries less competitive.
Separately, Thailand's cabinet on Tuesday approved the central bank's headline inflation target range of 1% to 3% for 2024, unchanged from this year, Deputy Finance Minister Julapun Amornvivat said.
The announcement came after Thailand's headline consumer price index (CPI) came in at
-0.44% in November
from a year earlier, the lowest in nearly three years.
It was the seventh successive monthly headline inflation that was below the central bank's target range.
Deflationary pressures come from government policies that reduced energy prices and falling meat prices.
The inflation target, which guides monetary policy, is reviewed each year and the range of 1% to 3% is supportive of economic growth, finance ministry spokesman Pornchai Theeravet, who also heads the fiscal policy office, said in a statement. - Reuters
